Sensitivity To Disgust And Its Relationship With Psychological Disorders

Disgust is one of the least studied and understood basic emotions. We all know roughly what it consists of, what its function is and what type of stimuli it appears; for example, to unpleasant smells, tastes or sights. However, something that we do not always keep in mind is its relationship with different psychological disorders. That is why today we want to talk to you about the sensitivity to disgust and its implication in various mental pathologies.

All basic emotions serve a function related to survival. In the case of disgust, this protects the body from ingesting any harmful, harmful or unpleasant substance that puts its integrity at risk. However, as with sadness or anger, when disgust manifests itself inappropriately it can cause psychological problems. And then we explain what they are.

What is sensitivity to disgust?

Sensitivity to disgust can be defined as the individual tendency to experience disgust  and this is different in each person. While there are certain situations that especially trigger this emotion, some individuals are more likely than others to experience it. And, not only that, but there are also differences in how unpleasant or annoying it feels.

Some authors make a separation between these concepts, but today we will include in the definition both the propensity to feel disgust and the more or less negative evaluation that is made of that feeling. Thus, it seems that people with a greater sensitivity to disgust have an increased risk of suffering from various disorders.

How are sensitivity to disgust and psychological disorders related?

Sensitivity to disgust is primarily related to various anxiety disorders. Among them are the following.

Phobia of animals

Animal phobia is generally associated with fear. It is usually understood that the phobic person experiences discomfort and avoids these animals out of fear, but in reality disgust seems to play a very relevant role.

Various investigations have found that sensitivity to disgust is especially related to the phobia of non-dangerous animals (such as spiders, cockroaches or rats) but not with the phobia of dangerous animals (such as bears, tigers or sharks). Therefore, sensitivity to disgust favors the acquisition of fear of certain animals related to the transmission of dirt or diseases.

Blood-Injection-Harm Phobia (SID)

Some people are especially susceptible to anything related to blood, injections, wounds, or mutilations. However, in this case disgust seems to be of much greater importance than in animal phobia; in fact, SID phobia can occur even in the complete absence of fear.

A phobic person when contemplating blood can experience nausea, dizziness or fainting without feeling any fear. Thus, sensitivity to disgust appears to be the key factor.

Obsessive compulsive disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by the presence of intrusive, persistent and unpleasant thoughts that are only alleviated after the performance of a ritual or compulsive behavior. It is one of the most disabling and distressing anxiety disorders; and, again, at its source the sensitivity to disgust seems to be found.

50% of patients diagnosed with OCD present intrusive thoughts of contamination, being much more frequent among those who present cleaning and washing compulsions.

Interestingly, these people do not perceive stimuli as feared, but as disgusting. In this way, sensitivity to disgust not only increases the perception of threat (makes the person worry more about contamination) but also prompts the individual to perform cleansing rituals in the face of such concern.

Sensitivity to disgust predicts the presence of psychological disorders

In addition to the already established relationship between sensitivity to disgust and these psychological disorders, there are some interesting facts to consider. For instance:

• An important relationship has been found between sensitivity to disgust and obsessive-compulsive symptoms even in healthy individuals.
• People with a phobia of non-dangerous animals show cleaning compulsions more often, but not other symptoms of OCD.
• Sensitivity to disgust is a very good predictor of the presence of this type of psychological disorder in the person. Even the high sensitivity to parental disgust predicts the presence of these specific fears in children, since there is an important family transmission.

In short, disgust seems to be a much more relevant emotion than what had been considered until now. Understanding its operation can help us predict, prevent and intervene in the appearance of these types of disorders and thus promote a higher quality of life in those who suffer from them.